


The Incredible Death Defying Adventures of the Amazing Dom and Indestructible Arthur

by kore_rising



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 15:17:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1693010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kore_rising/pseuds/kore_rising
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Dom are fast friends from the moment they meet as children. But will their friendship survive their growing up and Dom's little sister Ariadne?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Incredible Death Defying Adventures of the Amazing Dom and Indestructible Arthur

**Author's Note:**

> For the tumblr prompt: AU where Dom and Arthur are best friends and Ariadne is Dom’s younger sister.

Arthur doesn’t like the new house. He understands perfectly why they’re here, why they had to leave the city and move upstate. But that doesn’t mean he has to like it, he thinks mulishly. Plus his mom and dad are so busy organising the movers that his mood goes practically unnoticed, adding another black mark to his mental scorecard.

He half heartedly explores the house as they thump and crash around, but the smell of recent cleaning and the empty rooms makes him feel even more lost and strange. He misses the apartment in the city, with its smell of cooking and his mom’s perfume. He misses his old room, even though it was small, with his bed, his bookcase and the old wooden chest where he kept his clothes that his dad liked to tell him had once held pirate treasure. He misses school. They were learning about the Egyptians this semester, and he was looking forward to building a pyramid. He expects his people in his new school haven’t even heard of the Egyptians, or pyramids, or the Museum of Natural History. Morons.

He eventually slouches into the garden to get away from all the commotion. He’s hungry, but he dares not bring up the subject of lunch while his parents are trying to get the couch inside. The garden is supposed to be one of the reasons they moved.

“More space for you and your new little brother or sister,” his dad had told him happily. “You can have a treehouse. How does that sound?” Arthur wanted to reply that the park across the street was all he wanted, but he had nodded instead and let his parents carry on being excited.

Now he’s in it, he sort of thinks the garden is OK. There are some tall trees, a big square of lawn and some flowers around the edges. Its not the park though, he adds to himself as he wanders around, poking at the fence and stirring the gravel paths with the toes of his shoes. He’s deep into drawing a particularly intricate swirl in the stones when a boy’s voice interrupts.

“Are you the new people?”

Arthur looks up, and when he twists around he sees an older boy watching him from a tree fort in the next door garden. He’s blond, and his hair is falling in his eyes. His shirt is blue, and he’s sitting with his feet dangling over the edge. He’s got a sandwich in his hand, and while he waits for Arthur to reply he takes a huge bite and chews, watching him curiously the whole time.

“Yeah,” Arthur says. The sandwich is reminding him how hungry he is.

“You from the city?” The boy swings his feet as he talks.

“New York,” Arthur corrects him.

“Huh,” the boy looks impressed, “I thought the new people might just have cats, like the old ones. They would try and poop in our garden and my dad would chase them off with the hose,” the boy grins then adds, “or that they might have girls.” He makes a face, and Arthur screws his nose up in sympathy.

“You don’t have a sister, do you?” The boy asks quickly, and Arthur shakes his head.

“Well, I don’t know yet,” he amends, “My mom’s going to have a baby. That’s kind of why we moved. My dad got a new job and stuff too.” The boy nods and swipes his finger at a blob of jelly that’s fallen on his shirt and licks it off. Arthur’s stomach growls.

“So, you wanna come over?” The boy says calmly. “There’s a gap in the fence at the bottom of the garden. My mom can make us some sandwiches, I’ve got some comics and we can play Nintendo if you want.” He swings his feet again and grins at Arthur, who finds himself grinning back.

“Yeah,” he says gratefully, “but I need to ask my mom and dad first.”

The boy shrugs and nods in understanding. “Sure, I’ll be here.”

Arthur is running back up the garden when he hears the boy call out suddenly “Hey! What’s your name?”

Arthur turns and hollers back, “Arthur! What’s yours?”

The boy grins again. “Dominick,” he shouts, “but everyone calls me Dom.”

~*~

Arthur’s little brother is born in November, right before Thanksgiving. It’s cold, and there’s sleet falling when he goes to bed that night. He’s fast asleep when his dad comes into his bedroom, flicks on the lights and shakes him awake. “Come on, little guy,” he murmurs, bundling the sleepy Arthur up in his comforter and lifting him bodily from his bed.

“Wherem’goin?” Arthur protests.

“Next door. Dominick’s mom and dad said you can sleep over.”

“‘k,” Arthur mumbles, and he must have drifted off again because the next thing he knows Dom is shaking him awake.

“Wassamatter?” He complains, blinking in the half light. Dom’s crouching next to him, and it takes him a second to realise he’s in the bottom bunk of Dom’s bed, still covered in his Spiderman quilt.

“You’re staying at my house!” Dom whispers excitedly, “you’re having breakfast with us, we’re going to school together then you’re coming home with me for dinner. Isn’t that cool?”

Arthur sits up groggily and glances around. He’s definitely in Dom’s room. The walls are the familiar deep blue. On the shelves he can see the faint shapes of the Lego castles Dom is obsessed with building, and the piles of comics stacked according to which hero stars in the story. He can just see the glow stars on the ceiling that they had so carefully arranged into constellations last month. And he can definitely see Dom, dressed in his Superman pyjamas with his hair sleep mussed and his eyes alight with excitement.

“Isn’t it cool?” Dom repeats. “Scooch up,” he crowds into the bunk by Arthur’s feet and steals the end of the quilt.

“Yeah,” Arthur agrees. “But you know, by tomorrow I’m going to have baby brother. Or sister,” he adds reluctantly.

“Yeah, but if you have a brother that would be great, right? You can be like a team,” despite what he’s saying Dom’s excitement has suddenly muted. “You can play together and teach him stuff and he can share the treehouse your dad built you. It’ll be like having a best friend who lives with you.”  Even though Dom sounds a bit like his dad giving him one of his father-son _“How do you feel about the baby then?”_ talks, he looks kind of upset.

“It might be a girl,” Arthur says hurriedly.

“Yeah,” Dom mumbles and picks at the quilt.

Arthur bites his lip, and draws his knees up so he can hug them to his chest. He’s known Dom for ages now. They hang out and play every day. They go to the same school, and always spend recess and have lunch together, although some other kids had tried to pick on them because they’re in different grades. Dom had even punched a boy who teased Arthur in his first week for being new and from the city, and ended up staying in after school for it. Arthur had been so full of admiration he broke the habit of being well behaved and talked back in class on purpose, just so he was kept in too. After that, and a severe talking to for them both, their parents had christened them the dynamic duo, accepting that they were now just as likely to find both boys sprawled in their dens, doing homework at their kitchen tables or reading comic books in their treehouses as they were to find just their own son.

“We’re still going to be friends,” Arthur finally says, “you’re like, my best friend in the world.”

Dom looks up, and half smiles. “Yeah, but if you have a brother…” He stops, then suddenly he’s excited again. “I know what we can do. We can be brothers!”

Arthur frowns. “No we can’t. We have different moms and dads.”

But Dom has jumped off the bed and is rummaging around his messy desk. “Sure we can,” he says, looking back over his shoulder, his eyes glimmer with excitement. “Blood brothers, like Snake Eyes and Stormshadow.”

“But they’re enemies,” Arthur protests.

“Before they were enemies then,” Dom climbs back on the bunk and Arthur can see he’s holding his Scout knife.

“What do we do?” Arthur watches warily as Dom unfolds the small blade.

“We make a cut on our hands, then rub them together so our blood gets mixed up,” Dom looks at his left hand. “How big should it be? Like, how much blood do you think we need?”

Arthur can feel his insides squirm. He doesn’t want to admit it, but the thought of cutting himself makes him a little scared. Dom doesn’t look happy either, but he has the stubborn look he gets on his face when he’s determined and Arthur doesn’t want to wimp out.

“About medium sized?” He offers.

Dom nods, grits his teeth and presses the knife into the tip of his little finger. He breathes in short huffs, his skin dimpling under the blade as he pushes harder, and harder then suddenly his finger gives. Blood rushes out, dark in the dim light, dripping on the covers as he pulls the knife back with a hiss. “Quick,” he says to Arthur in an unnaturally high voice, and Arthur panics. He grabs the knife and stabs his little finger. The pain is so sudden and so bad he wants to cry; he wants his mom, and to be hugged until all the sticky, red sting and the wave of dizziness in his head goes away. But instead he shakily holds out his hand and Dom presses his finger against the cut.

“Brothers until death,” Dom says between short breaths.

“Brothers until death,” Arthur repeats, the queasy feeling in his throat nearly swallowing the words. He can feel blood trickling down his wrist, and he just knows his mom and dad are going to be mad when they see his quilt.

But Dom smiles weakly at him, and he smiles back. It’s going to be OK. They’re going to be friends forever.

Its right at that moment Dom’s mom opens his bedroom door, flips on the lights and says cheerfully, 

“Boys, I know you’re excited but-” Then breaks off with a horrified noise just as they’re both sick on the bedroom floor.

~*~

Dom’s mom gets pregnant when Arthur’s brother Andrew is three months old. Arthur is in his tree house, hiding from yet another visit from his Auntie Sarah and his Grandma, when Dom’s head appears over the side.

 

“Hey,” he says calmly.

“Hey,” Arthur nods, watching as Dom climbs up and sits down, putting a thermos flask on the floor.

“My mom made cocoa,” he says, “you’ve got visitors again?”

Arthur nods.

“They’re still asking you all those dumb questions?” Dom pours him a cup, and Arthur takes it gratefully.

“Yeah. They all think I’m jealous,” Arthur rolls his eyes, “They keep asking me, ‘Do you like being a big brother?’ When I say it’s OK but Andrew’s still a baby they get all funny.”

Dom makes a face. “Yeah, how can you know yet?”

“I like him,” Arthur insists, “sort of. When he isn’t crying or pooping his diaper.” Which is true, he adds to himself. He’s pretty cute and he likes when Arthur plays This Little Piggy with him, laughing like crazy and trying to grab his own toes.

Dom makes another face then sighs, “I wanted to tell you. My mom and dad told me we’re going to have a baby. They’re going to have a baby,” he puts himself right. “They think I’m mad about it because I didn’t say anything when they said.”

“Oh,” is all Arthur can say. “Are you?”

Dom fiddles with his cup. “No,” he says reluctantly, “I’m just not, like, I’m not crazy happy like they are.”

They sit in silence for a while. “You’ll be a big brother too,” Arthur says eventually. “Like me. It’s pretty fun. Some of the time.”

Dom peers at Arthur through his straggles of hair. “Really?” He looks unconvinced.

“Yeah. I mean, apart from everyone asking you if you like it and telling you you have to share your stuff,”  Arthur half smiles. “You’re going to have someone to be like your Robin. You can tell them what to do and make them help you with your chores and stuff. And my dad says that he thought his big brother was so cool when he told him to do things, he would just do them, and he would stick up for him and taught him lots of amazing stuff. He says his big brother was like, his biggest hero.” 

Dom thinks about this for a minute. “His hero? Really? That is pretty cool.”

“I know,” Arthur grinned, “there’ll be you and me, and both our sidekicks. We’ll be awesome.”

 

Dom looks up, and this time he has lopsided smile on his face. “I’m going to be a big brother,” he says slowly, a glint in his eye at last.

~*~

The first time Arthur meets Ariadne she’s four days old, bundled in a huge white blanket, and has a face that looks like it was drawn by someone who isn’t very good at people. Or at least that’s what he thinks. He knows better than to say she looks scrunched up, is mostly bald and is tiny, at least half the size Andy was when he came home. Instead he politely smiles at Ariadne when Dom’s mom insists he say hello and repeats what he heard people say when Andy was like this:

“She’s really cute.”  He hopes he sounds convincing.

“She is,” Arthur’s mom coos, resting her hand on his head and smiling sappily. Arthur hopes she’s not getting ideas.

“Dom is so good with her,” Dom’s mom smiles, “he loves to hold her, don’t you?”

“Oh,” Arthur’s mom beams, “Arthur was like that with Andy.”

****Dom catches Arthur’s eye across the room and they share a look that conveys both embarrassment at their moms and promise never to bring this up in public.

“Would you like to hold her?”

He thinks Dom’s mom is talking to his mom, until his mom pats his hair and says gently, “Arthur honey, please answer Mrs. Cobb.”

“Oh. OK,” he catches his mom’s eye and she nods reassuringly.He’s still not sure how to say no politely to grown ups in situations like this. Despite knowing Mrs. Cobb for such a long time he’s still not sure if she’d be angry if he refused. And she must think he wants to, since why would she ask him if she didn’t?

So he sits down on the couch, puts his arms in the rock-a-bye baby shape his dad taught him so he could hold Andy, and Mrs. Cobb gently puts Ariadne and all her blankets in them.

“Oh,” Arthur’s mom says again.

Arthur looks up to see her smiling at him, dabbing her eyes with a kleenex, and another twinge of embarrassment makes him desperate to look somewhere, anywhere else. So instead he looks at Ariadne. She doesn’t look much different close up, Arthur thinks, if anything she’s even more scrumpled, pink faced and smells a bit like sour milk.She’s moving her head from side to side, opening and closing her hands slowly and making her lips go round as if she’s blowing bubbles while  making small mew noises like a cat. He can't work out why people like babies so much when they're like this. They don't talk, you can't play with them, they just eat, poop, sleep and cry. At least Andy's more fun now he can almost walk. Ariadne's just lying there, looking at him with her dark blue eyes and trying to pat at his chin.

 

He moves her a bit because his arms are getting tired, she suddenly gives him a toothless smile and he realises that he can smell more than sour milk. Ariadne chuckles, as if watching the realisation she's got a dirty diaper cross Arthur's face is the funniest thing she's seen in all of her short life.  Just as he’s working out how to say what’s happened, a loud click startles him into looking up. Mrs. Cobb is kneeling a few feet away, holding her camera. He knows, because Dom told him, that his mom used to take pictures for her work and that some of the ones on the walls of their house are hers.

"Lovely," Mrs. Cobb smiles at Arthur. "You looked very contented." Arthur is so surprised he doesn't have the nerve to argue, or indeed mention what Ariadne's just done. Hopefully Mrs. Cobb caught the moment before he smelled it, or else the picture might not look how she thinks.

"I'll make you a copy, if you like?" She adds to Arthur's mom. 

"Yes, very much," Arthur's mom is smiling at him too.  He really, really hopes that the picture isn't of him making a bad smell face. "Now, Arthur, may I hold Ariadne for a while?"

Arthur nods, and gratefully lets his mom take her. He’s just glad to get the smell of Ariadne’s diaper away from him. And it’ll be easier for his mom to mention the whole poop situation to Mrs. Cobb, he decides to himself. Ariadne is still smiling at him as he passes her over, waving her hands and mewing.

“Ah, she likes you,” his mom says. However Arthur recalls that his dad always said that was gas when Andy did it and Ariadne seems no different, even if she's a girl.

 

He and Dom quickly excuse themselves and head upstairs for a snack. They wind up flopping on the floor of Dom's room to devour a plate of cookies and large glasses of milk that Mrs. Cobb had so thoughtfully allowed them.

 

"What do you think of my sister?" Dom says proudly. In the last few months he's gone from being half reluctant to excited about his new sibling, even to the point of asking one day if he could borrow Andy for practice. (Arthur's mom had compromised on letting him visit to try out as a big brother.)

"She's cute," Arthur says again, then amends, "but she kind of still looks squashed. And she pooped when I was holding her."

Dom laughs into the glass of milk he’s holding, "Gross! But yeah, I know what you mean. She is kind of ugly. And she cries like a fire truck siren. But, you know. She's not so bad." He smiles lopsidedly.

Arthur nods sagely. "It's OK. Having a baby around, I mean. They can be quite cool after a while."

They sit quietly for a moment, eating cookies, then downstairs Ariadne begins to wail out an eardrum shredding shriek.

"See?" Dom grins,"like a siren."

"Maybe she's a mutant," Arthur suggests with a grin, "and that's her power. Your sister is really an X Man."

"No way. If anyone's an X Man it's me," Dom pouts.

"What's your mutation then?" Arthur peels another Oreo apart and methodically licks away the filling as Dom begins to explain in great detail why he's got the gift of telepathy like Professor X.

 

~*~

 ****  
  



End file.
